Adventures in Road-Tripping!

Here is a blog post I wrote while on the road in early July and forgot about in the craziness of moving and starting a job ...

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After nearly a year of traveling in Kenya and living in other peoples' homes, Chris and I have spent the last few weeks ... traveling in the US and living in other peoples' homes! We were reunited about two weeks ago in Illinois, where we spent some time visiting with his family and meeting our new nephew for the first time. Then we packed up all our earthly belongings in a Uhaul, attached our Jetta to a trailer on back, and hit the road for California!

Our nephew, Robby, and niece, Libby, on a boat in IL. 

All packed up and ready to go!

Day 1: Edwardsville, IL (near St. Louis) to Lawrence, KS
Miles: 304
- Stopped for coffee on the way out of town, had to park in the far end of a remote parking lot because of our enormous vehicle, and found $20 crumpled in the gutter. There wasn't even a shop around at which to turn it in, so we considered it gas money.
- Drove through Illinois, Missouri, and into Kansas. Missouri always has the greenest grass, bluest sky, and perfectly fluffy white clouds.
- Stayed with my aunt and uncle, enjoyed a nice meal at Free State Brewing Co. and browsing at Signs of Life bookstore.

Day 2: Lawrence KS to Denver, CO.
Miles: 572
- Drove through Kansas and Colorado in heavy wind, going about 4000 feet vertically over 500 miles to get to the mile-high city.
- Stayed with our friends from college, Scott & Marisa. We enjoyed a nice meal and barely lost a rousing game of couples corn-hole - Chris rocked, I sucked.

This smile is completely fake.  I hated driving the Uhaul.  You may notice my death-grip on the steering wheel.

Mountains!

Day 3: Denver, CO to Salt Lake City UT
Miles: 543
- Drove through Colorado, Wyoming, and into Utah, traveling alongside and through beautiful rolling hills and the Rocky Mountains. Definitely the prettiest day of the trip.
- Stayed with Nancy and Dave, a couple we met through Couch Surfing. It was our first time using the website, but I had a good gut feeling about them - and they were fantastic! They are retired teachers, active Christians (Presbyterians, even!), love to travel and do outdoor stuff, have kids about our age, and Nancy spends 4 months of every year teaching in Tanzania! They fed us, drove us around to see the mountains and ski resorts, and even prayed for our trip the next morning. Chris and I agreed they felt like family and couldn't have been better hosts.

Snow?!

Yay, more mountains!

Day 4: Salt Lake City, UT to Sacramento, CA
Miles: 650
- Drove through Utah, Nevada, and into California
- After passing by the Great Salt Lake, drove into the middle of the Great Salt Lake Dessert. Saw multiple signs for a town where we planned to get gas, only to find that there were "no services." Ran out of gas 40 miles past and 35 miles until the next gas station. Called AAA, played with the salt/rocks until they came.
- Stayed with Chris's grandparents, who we hadn't seen in a couple years.

Sad face.  In reality, I pouted and Chris played in the salt.

That's salt, not snow!

Day 5: Sacramento, CA to Santa Clara, CA
Miles: 138
-Had breakfast with Grandma & Grandpa Baribeau, Uncle Gerald & Donna, while watching Germany beat Argentina in the World Cup quarter-finals.  Sad as we were that the US didn't continue, we were also a little relieved that we wouldn't have to alter our travel plans to watch them play.
-Arrived in Santa Clara, CA, and began moving in to our new apartment!  I am so thrilled to finally be home.

Chris shows pictures while I take pictures.

 Celebrating our 4th anniversary a few days after we moved in.

Great Salt Lake Desert

Looking through pics from this summer, I came across this one ... for about an hour we hung out in the middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert, where our Uhaul ran out of gas.  The white is salt!

Story of Stuff

Following right on the heels of the blogpost in which I talk about how much I love my stuff, comes a video that shows what I actually know to be true about "stuff."  This video really resonated with both Chris and me, and the relationship of environmental responsibility and social justice reminded us of Blessed Unrest (see Chris's post about the book).  Although I can cognitively rationalize my consumer behavior to justify my frequent trips to Target and IKEA, I know my experiences in Kenya and my gut reaction tell me that she's right. 

Watch this - it is worth your 20 minutes. 
http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Design challenge - Marrying Craftsman and Kenyan

One of the happiest things about being "home" again is that we have an apartment and our household things back.  Now, I'm not that much of a "thing" person - we parted with a lot of our possessions before leaving, but I do particularly love my home furnishings and decor.  However, I encountered a design challenge when I realized that our pre-Kenya and post-Kenya possessions really didn't go together. 

Here is a glimpse of our style before we left for Kenya - mostly Craftsman/Frank Lloyd Wright inspired:

And here is a glimpse of the beautiful things we brought home from Kenya:

So I have a challenge on my hands:  I still love the decor we had pre-Kenya, but I also love the new items we picked up.  How do I mix the straight lines and muted colors of FLW with the geometric curves and bright hues of Kenya?   For a while I thought I had to pick one and ignore the other.  Then, after watching a fair amount of HGTV and analyzing the actual differences, I realized I could challenge my traditional sense of what matches, and could also create my own pieces of decor to bring the two divergent styles together. 

Idea 1:  Just put different pieces together and see how it goes

Idea 2:  Make my own throw pillows that use both muted and bright tones of the same color (so far have just purchased fabric, but I plan to put them in alternating thick stripes)

Idea 3:  Create original papercuts that ties in one of my favorite Kenyan themes (the Mombasa doors) while being executed in a format that fits with previous home decor (they will be similar to the FLW papercut coasters above)

Any other ideas for me?  I love getting input, especially from people who are better at home decor than I am :-).  I still have a lot of work to do, like sewing the pillows and getting art framed, but it can get very costly very quickly (especially custom framing), so it will be a work in progress for a while.